How To Get A Feature Rich Image Viewer In Chrome

Chrome can open common image formats. You can view a PNG, a GIF, a JPG, and an SVG file in Chrome without needing any extra tools. The thing is, Chrome is essentially a web browser. It supports viewing quite a few file types but that is to facilitate its main function i.e. opening web pages. It isn’t built to be a smart image viewer. If you want to do anything other than view an image, you have to save it to your desktop and use a different app like IrfanView. Enhanced Image Viewer is a Chrome extension that gives you a feature rich image viewer in Chrome. You can set the default background color for an image, zoom in/out, pan around, rotate the image, and more.

Install Enhanced Image Viewer and right-click an image in Chrome. The extension adds a ‘View image in current tab’ option to the context menu. You can use this option to open an image or you can use the default ‘Open image in a new tab’ option. In either case, the extension will take over the image viewer function.

By default, Enhanced Image Viewer sets the background color to white. It also centers the image. Chrome by default snaps images to the left. You can zoom in freely on the image by scrolling up. Tap the Q key to rotate it counter clockwise.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

Of course, Enhanced Image Viewer can do much more than this. It lets you choose the default size an image opens in. Open the Extensions page in Chrome and go to Enhanced Image Viewer’s options.

The Default size dropdown lets you choose if an image should fill the window, open at its actual size, or fill the window only if its large. The Background color field lets you select the background color for an image. For a solid image, this color is what the empty space surrounding the image will be. For an image with transparency, this color will fill in the transparent area.

You can change the default alignment of an image. Chrome aligns an image to the left and the extension aligns it in the middle. You can choose left, middle, or right aligned. For larger images, you can hide the scrollbars that appear. Enhanced Image Viewer lets you pan and zoom around the image by clicking and dragging your mouse cursor.

Enhanced Image Viewer doesn’t let you edit images. It isn’t meant to. It simply gives you better options for viewing images in Chrome. The extension will not allow you to view images that Chrome doesn’t support. It relies on the browser’s image support and gives you a more feature rich image viewer in Chrome.